Skin and/or hair benefit agents, for example, anti-aging agents, skin optical agents, sun care agents and fragrance, to name a few, are among the ingredients commonly available in personal care compositions formulated as water based compositions. In many applications it is desirable that such ingredients be stably retained in such compositions during processing and storage, but that they become quickly available in use, that is to say, upon or after application. A common method of providing such rapid availability is to encapsulate the ingredients of interest in a delivery vehicle designed to release in response to a trigger associated with the intended use of the composition.
Their ability to be infused with a variety of different materials coupled with their relatively rapid solubility in water, makes sugars potentially attractive candidates as encapsulating vehicles for additives, in particular, skin and/or hair benefit agents, in a variety of personal care compositions, including, for example, cleansing products such as, for example, body washes, moisturizers, liquid soaps, shower gels, face washes, hand washes, shampoos, hair conditioners, body lotions, and the like. However, as many personal care compositions are water based, and sugars are highly water soluble, finding a means of stabilizing the sugars in such compositions without undesirably impacting their release properties, particularly in applications where rapid release is desired, has been problematic.
JP 2062817 discloses make-up compositions therein said to have a skin-moisturizing effect and to give excellent feeling to the skin, which compositions contain one or more types of wax capsules containing one or more skin-moisturizing components, for example, components selected from water, alcohols, polyhydric alcohols, sugars or sugar alcohols, sugar derivatives, polysaccharides, amino acids, polypeptides, organic acid salts, water-soluble vitamins and substances having vitamin-like action. Exemplary of the wax component of the capsule are beeswax or spermaceti, vegetable solid wax such as carnauba wax, mineral solid wax such as montan wax or Japan wax, and the like.
EP 0401956 discloses a sweetener delivery system therein said to be useful in chewing gum confectionary, comestibles, personal products and pharmaceutical compositions. The delivery system therein disclosed comprises a particulate sweetener encapsulated in a matrix consisting essentially of a blend of a fat and a rosin ester, such delivery system having a melting point of from about 60° C. to about 90° C.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,932,982 discloses a granular delivery system based on a matrix that combines a carbohydrate material with from 1 to 7 percent of prehydrated agar. The granular delivery system is therein said to be capable of providing controlled release of an active flavoring or perfuming ingredient that is encapsulated therein. In the field of perfuming ingredients, disclosed applications for the delivery system include detergents, fabric softeners, soaps, bath or shower gels, deodorants, body lotions, shampoos or other hair-care products, household cleansers, and cleaning and deodorizing blocks for toilet tanks.
US 2002/0034479 discloses oral compositions comprising petroleum jelly in the form of droplets enrobing a particulate active, characterized in that the droplets comprise an amphiphilic organic material capable of forming, upon contact with moisture, a water-insoluble liquid crystal phase of at least one dimensional periodicity. The amphiphilic organic material is therein defined as an organic material which has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic portions in its structure. At paragraph 0022, typical examples of amphiphilic organic materials are said to be “unsaturated and/or saturated C12-C24 fatty acid glycerides, optionally in admixture with long chain fatty acids and/or fatty alcohol and/or polyalkylene glycols such as glyceryl monooleate, optionally in admixture with oleic acid, glycerol monolaurate, in admixture with oleic acid or with oleyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, isostearyl alcohol or a mixture thereof; glyceryl mono-isostearate, glyceryl mono-linoleate in admixture with glyceryl mono-oleate, polyoxyethylene ethers, mixtures of lecithin and oleic acid or oleyl alcohol, mixtures of sodium or potassium oleate with oleic acid or oleyl alcohol, and certain silicone materials such as sodium 10-Ω-butyl [poly(dimethylsiloxy)dimethyl silyl]decanoate.” The patent discloses that mixtures of any of these materials may also be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,730,651 discloses a stock composition for use in detergent or personal care compositions, the stock comprising a high concentration of capsules formed of a hydrophobic material such as, for example, paraffin, oil, wax or petroleum jelly.
KR 2008009896 discloses a cosmetic composition having a skin scrub function and a skin moisturizing function that includes recrystallized sugar particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,395,691 discloses a personal liquid composition comprising: (a) a surfactant system, (b) a particle-in-oil dispersion comprising: (i) petrolatum or thickened emollient oil which contains oil mixable polymers which petrolatum or thickened oil have a viscosity as therein more particularly described and (ii) particles selected from solids having a particle size of 0.1 to 250 microns and capsules in the size range of 1 to 200 microns, all as therein more particularly described. Examples of suitable particles are silica, talc, mica, silicone powders or capsules such as perfume capsules or vitamin E capsules.
In the area of personal care compositions for application to the human body, as for example, in the treatment of hair and/or skin, there remains a need for encapsulates that afford a combination of stability, particularly in aqueous products, and desirable release.